The second Friends of Socialist China delegation to China took place from 26 May to 5 June 2025. The delegation, composed of 15 comrades from Britain and the US, visited Xi’an and Yan’an (Shaanxi), Dunhuang and Jiayuguan (Gansu) and Shanghai, visiting important historical sites, learning about China’s development, attending the 4th Dialogue on Exchanges and Mutual Learning among Civilisations, and engaging meeting with a range of organisations.
On Monday 3 June, the delegation participated in a dialogue with the China Institute of Shanghai’s Fudan University, consisting of a panel discussion featuring Professor Zhang Weiwei, Professor Wu Xinwen, and Friends of Socialist China co-editors Carlos Martinez and Keith Bennett, followed by a wide-ranging discussion with the audience.
We reproduce below a report of the event from the China Institute WeChat channel, which has been machine-translated. The full video can be found on the China Academy website, and is embedded below. We will also be publishing a delegation report in due course.
On the afternoon of June 3, Carlos Martinez, co-editor of the Friends of Socialist China website, and Keith Bennett, vice chairman of the British 48 Group Club, led a delegation of Friends of Socialist China to visit the China Institute of Fudan University. Professor Zhang Weiwei, director of the National High-end Think Tank Council and dean of the China Institute of Fudan University, and Professor Wu Xinwen, vice dean, had in-depth dialogues and interactive exchanges with Mr. Martinez, Mr. Bennett and other members of the delegation on Chinese socialism and its global significance.
In his speech, Professor Zhang Weiwei welcomed the Friends of Socialist China delegation and briefly introduced China’s exploration of socialism along the way and its impact on the outside world.
Mr. Martinez’s speech revolved around the core ideas of his book “The East is Still Red: Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century”, pointing out that the Western world has a lot of fear and negative reports about China, but very few achievements and positive reports about China. He believes that China’s achievements in poverty alleviation have attracted worldwide attention. In the past 40 years, 800 million people have escaped poverty. China’s poverty alleviation standards in housing, food, clothing, drinking water, electricity, education, and medical care are basically equivalent to the living standards of the middle class in the global South . He highly praised China’s achievements in environmental protection and pointed out that China has become the world’s only renewable energy superpower, with wind and solar power generation accounting for 60% of the world , electric bus production accounting for 98% of the world , and electric vehicle production and sales accounting for more than 70% of the world . He criticized the West for attributing China’s achievements since reform and opening up to a certain form of capitalism, pointing out that if China adopted capitalism, it would not be possible to give priority to improving the living standards of the vast majority of people, especially the vulnerable groups, and it would not be possible to give priority to the development of renewable energy; in capitalist society, wealth is directly tied to public power, which is not the case in China. He believes that China is still red, as it was in the past and still is now.
Professor Zhang Weiwei affirmed Mr. Martinez’s view that “the East is still red” and discussed the three characteristics of Chinese socialism: first, the dominant position of public ownership is guaranteed, including the state’s ownership of land and strategic resources; second, the political, social and capital forces have formed a balance that is beneficial to the vast majority of the people, making most Chinese people the beneficiaries of globalization; third, the Communist Party of China is a party of overall interests, which is completely different from the partial interest parties in the West. As a civilized country that is “the sum of hundreds of countries”, China has formed a tradition of a unified ruling group in its long history. The Communist Party of China is, to some extent, the continuation and development of this tradition.
Mr. Bennett agreed with Professor Zhang Weiwei’s views. He believed that the key to defining whether China is socialist or not lies in whether the state has a dominant position in the economy, which means that we should not only pay attention to state-owned enterprises or land ownership, but also pay attention to enterprises of a cooperative nature. He went on to point out that whether it is an organization at the township level or a large enterprise like Huawei, they are essentially cooperatives, which is very different from private capitalist ownership. He also believed that with the strengthening of the leadership role of the Communist Party of China, some large private enterprises also need to serve the overall interests of the country, society and the majority of the people. He emphasized that China under the leadership of the Communist Party of China is the only country in the world that has proposed solutions to the real survival problems of mankind, and many of its propositions have been accepted by the vast majority of countries in the world.
Professor Wu Xinwen pointed out in the dialogue that Chinese socialism has both particularity and universality, and that it is necessary to expand its universal significance and answer questions such as “what can China contribute to the world”. He said that when the official expression “socialism with Chinese characteristics” is used, it represents a defensive position, which means that China’s socialism is not Soviet-style or Eastern European-style socialism, but socialism with Chinese characteristics. He emphasized that the reason why China is socialist rather than state capitalism is that the main policy makers in China are the Communist Party of China, not capital interest groups.
The two sides also discussed issues such as the construction of the global China narrative, the West’s “new Cold War” against China, and the Latin American socialist movement.
During the question-and-answer session, Professor Zhang Weiwei and other members of the delegation had a lively interaction on issues such as the China – Africa cooperation model, differences in the financial systems of China and the United States, full-process people’s democracy, China-Latin America strategic cooperation, the adaptive dilemma of Western-style democracy in China, the prospects for the development of China-Africa relations, the strategic direction of China’s diplomacy, and the relationship between domestic development and international responsibilities.
After the event, the two sides presented books to each other and took photos together.
Thanks for this detailed and very fascinating report. I will use it in my own speaking on behalf of FOSC during my speaking tour in the US Pacific Northwest and in San Francisco.